Thank You, Robert Rodriguez

I cut this from his book. It gets me out there and keeps enjoying making imperfect movies. I hope you and I are not done yet in whatever passion we have.

A Rebel Without A Crew:

I think that everyone has at least a dozen or so bad movies in them. The sooner you get them out, the better off you are.

Think of it as a research or studying before the big test. If you walk in for the test on the day, having not done some homework or studying on your own, you’ll get clobbered. Many students in the film class spent about $1000 on their projects since it was 16mm and the projects came out lame, because they were trying to learn everything at once and expected the results to be better.

I talked to a few of these students who all semester had been talking about how much they wanted to be directors, then they made their first film and it’s less than they expected and so they got discouraged. They gave up and said “I don’t want to be directors anymore,I don’t think that’s my bag. What I really want to do is produce!”

First of all, this is where producers come from.
Second, they wouldn’t have been so discouraged and given up so easily if they had just kept going.
Third, the more experience you give yourself, the more prepared you are for the next project. If you want to be a rock star, you don’t go to a rock star school and expect to come out like Jimi Hendrix after a few short classes. You have to lock yourself in the garage and practice till your fingers bleed.

Enough schooling. Get your ass out there and make a movie because I’m telling you, Hollywood is ripe for the taking. There are so many creative people out there itching to make something, but they’re too negative in thinking they’ll never get anywhere or it’ll never happen.

Good luck to following whatever passion you have. You will most probably succeed in attaining it. And if you don’t, you’ll find that if it’s really your passion you are following then you will find enormous fulfillment and incredible satisfaction from at last trying.

Thank you for your time and I hope someday I can meet you in person. Until then... Good luck and God Bless.